Author: AdweekMedia

Given Apple’s anal zeal for secrecy, it’s pretty amazing that a commercial for its iSlate has already leaked out. And who would have thought that a French tech blogger would be the first to get a hold of it? It turns out Apple is using a catchy song that bemoans, "Someday I won’t exist." Odd choice. Maybe Apple wants consumers to embrace existentialism? Apple is also reaching back to the ’80s for that cool multicolor paint-splatter look best exemplified in the J. Geils Band’s "Freeze Frame" video. OK, OK. This is obviously a fake. Nice try, Pierre. Now let’s all wait a few hours to see what Apple’s really going to come up with.

—Posted by Todd Wasserman

Why, they’re practically mirror images, these two billboards, except one features a marketer playing fast and loose with likeness rights and the other focuses on a character skirting the rules in a much bigger way. AMC, home to the groundbreaking series Breaking Bad, couldn’t resist a parody to promote the upcoming launch of the third season on March 21. The cable network chose to copy the maligned Weatherproof ad that used President Obama’s image without his permission. The two sat side by side in New York’s Times Square for at least a day. AMC’s near-exact replica puts Walter White, played by Bryan Cranston, a two-time Emmy-winner in the role, in his meth-making accoutrement under the headline, "You got no proof." (He sure is defiant, that high school teacher turned drug kingpin, even though his criminal enterprise is starting to fray at the seams.) The Weatherproof billboard, already scheduled for removal, is due to come down today. The brilliant Breaking Bad ad will stay up for about a month.



—Posted by T.L. Stanley

Glenn Close, the gang from Lost, Jerry Seinfeld, Peter Krause, Simon Cowell, Craig T. Nelson. So many popular stars on midseason TV shows. And side by side with those luminaries? Virgin America, Waste Management Inc., 7-Eleven, Hooters, Churchill Downs and White Castle, all with high-profile product placements they didn’t have to pay a dime for. Virgin America stars in Fly Girls, which follows five of the marketer’s hot flight attendants in a Gossip-Girl-meets-The-Hills docu-style series on the CW. (The airline’s top marketer is a co-executive producer.) Along with the girls’ catfights and dating drama, expect to catch a glimpse of the finer features of the Richard Branson-backed airline, like its free wi-fi and celebrity parties. The screen time will be golden for Virgin, which is expanding its operations in the U.S. over the next several years. Undercover Boss (see video above), premiering on CBS after the Super Bowl, will expose a bit of the underbelly of Southern companies like Waste Management, White Castle and the others, but only to right wrongs and celebrate working stiffs. Timely! None of the marketers have creative control over the programming, but they’ll probably be happy with their close-ups anyway since it’ll be their warts-and-all, not their competitors. And the price sure was right.

—Posted by T.L. Stanley

Ah, yes! Just when we thought Donald Trump would get his grubby paws on "milk’s favorite cookie" (i.e., Oreo), Kraft Foods on Sunday announced a much more pleasant outcome of its Oreo Double Stuf Racing League challenge. Last year, Trump challenged the Manning brothers—football stars Peyton and Eli—to a contest to determine Oreo’s fate. If Trump and his look-alike partner in crime, comedian Darrell Hammond, won, Oreo would become his. But as seen in this spot from Draftfcb New York, the Manning brothers are as good at chomping down Oreo cookies as they are at throwing touchdown passes. (The contest called for players to lick, dunk and eat the cookies, and then show off their victorious milk mustaches to their opponent.) To celebrate the victory, Kraft has been giving out up to 150,000 packages—a "stadium’s worth"—of Golden Double Stuf Oreo cookies on its Facebook fan page. It’s also offering $1-off coupons. Just don’t let Trump, or Hammond, get their hands on them first.

—Posted by Elaine Wong

For all of you who a) are beside yourselves wondering what Apple’s Tablet PC is going to look like when it’s unveiled tomorrow and b) need reminding that Apple’s marketing, particularly when Steve Jobs wasn’t at the company, hasn’t always been stellar, here’s an ad from 1993 hyping the release of the Apple Newton, a high-profile blunder from the company. You’ll note that the spirit of the work is much different than the current Apple ads, perhaps because it was created by BBDO rather than Apple’s current agency, TBWA. For one thing, it’s got a macho voiceover, rather than the quirky, bemused voice work of Jeff Goldblum, which set the tone for the current goofy yet logical "Get a Mac" ads. Among other faults, the ad also lamely shows a man purported to be Sir Isaac Newton asking "Who is Newton?," features unhip older people using the device and touts the digital notepad device as "cool," which is surely the kiss of death. Other ads showed a woman "bordering on hysteria" lying on a coach while her shrink scribbled notes on the device and reporters toting Newtons as they followed a beautiful model around, according to an article in The Wall Street Journal from the time. Ultimately, a convergence of factors, including poor handwriting recognition and relentless mockery in Doonesbury (which was much more of a public influencer in those pre-Web days), did the Newton in, though it appears the advertising didn’t help much, either. There are a lot of mysteries around Apple’s announcement next week, but one thing’s for sure: The ads won’t look anything like this.

—Posted by Todd Wasserman

Bud Light is going back to the well to get a little pre-Super Bowl buzz going. In particular, the brand and agency DDB are reimagining their famous "Swear Jar" ad from 2007 as a clothing drive. In the old ad, employees put money into a jar every time they said something profane. When told it would subsidize the purchase of Bud Light, they all began swearing like Dick Cheney, though the actual words were bleeped out. Here, each article of clothing donated nets a bottle of Bud Light. Soon, we see people in an office environment walking around in skivvies (and generally flabby bods) and then nothing at all. It looks like they got a lot of the same actors this time around, but for some reason, it’s not quite as hilarious, maybe because it’s just a twist on an old (though great) idea and the surprise of the original is gone. Still, I bet it shows up on a lot of Facebook pages this week.

—Posted by Todd Wasserman

When it comes to out-of-home media, digital tends to get the lion’s share of the attention these days. But sometimes a low-tech idea can also turn some heads. Take the promotion for the second season of Hoarders, the A&E reality series about obsessive pack rats. In New York, A&E has worked with Horizon Media and ShowMedia to disseminate 400 clear-plastic taxi-top displays that have old newspapers stuffed inside them. And don’t worry, green types, the newspapers came from recycling centers.

—Posted by Todd Wasserman

Sure, I know prunes aren’t prunes anymore. They’re dried plums, having been rebranded in the early oughts to shake the old-codger image and be reborn as a superfruit. Healthy and trendy. The California Prune Board even changed its name to the California Dried Plum Board, and marketers jumped on the chance to move product outside the geriatric set. In a current ad campaign, the family-run food producer Mariani gives us a free sample—January is digestive health month!—and a cartoon mascot with a mask, cape and S-shield on her chest. She’s alternately referred to as Superfruit Woman and Superwoman. (Does Warner Bros. know about her?) Anyway, she has bouncy hair and a tiny waist (and Olympic speedskater quads) and practically glows from all the antioxidants she gets from eating dried plums. And judging from a diagram of her innards on the company’s Web site, she’s probably as regular as rain. All reasons to give this product a try? Nah. Maybe when I’m 80.

—Posted by T.L. Stanley

It’s shaping up to be one of the marketing success stories of this young year, and oh boy, color me surprised. The Lovely Bones, the Peter Jackson-directed drama based on the best-selling novel, pulled in $20.5 million on its first broad-release weekend, coming in third place after a grassroots campaign that gunned hard for the Twilight crowd. Despite a story that revolves around the rape and murder of a 14-year-old girl, 72 percent of the weekend’s audience was female, and 40 percent were under 20. (The rape was written in the book but dropped from the movie.) A tidbit of background: The movie was supposed to be a prestige, art-house flick and Oscar contender. (It’s had to settle so far for a single Golden Globe nom for co-star Stanley Tucci.) But when it rolled out in limited release last month, reviews were lukewarm and box office was pitiful. Strategy changed. Paramount began focusing on college women and teen girls after research said they liked the movie better than any other demos. Some scoffed. (Yeah, that was me.) It’s still to be determined if its fans will spread the word to more Team Jacob/Team Edward devotees. Seems clear, though, that the marketing is leading the way, rather than, as a friend suggested, that Tiger Beat cover for Tucci. She was kidding.

—Posted by T.L. Stanley

Conan O’Brien’s gone plum wild. Not only is he joking constantly about jobs he might take when his seven-month stint on The Tonight Show is over (he recently suggested creepy shoe salesman at Lady Foot Locker), he’s sticking it to NBC in the form of wildly expensive skits. Between interviews with Adam Sandler and Joel McHale on Wednesday night, he introduced a new character called the Bugatti Veyron Mouse. It was, in fact, the most expensive car in the world dressed up to look like a rodent, complete with ears and whiskers. Adorable! As a soundtrack, he chose the original master recording of the Rolling Stones’ "Satisfaction," bringing the price tag for the comedy bit to a whopping $1.5 million. But was it funny? Sure, if you’re Team Coco. The network, by the way, has suddenly lost its sense of humor and reportedly pulled the Bugatti clip from its own site and Hulu. UPDATE: Kentucky Derby winner Mine That Bird stopped by on Thursday night in a mink Snuggie to watch some restricted NFL footage. Price tag: $4.8 million. Ca-ching! UPDATE: The Veyron Mouse was loaned to the show by the Petersen Museum.

—Posted by T.L. Stanley

There’s a sans-laugh-track clip going around from the sitcom The Big Bang Theory that illustrates how much worse that show would be without the recorded guffaws. Pretty dreadful. I just had a similar experience watching this new Target ad from Peterson Milla Hooks. First, I experienced it with the sound off, and it looked fairly pedestrian, like the sort of thing you’d see from, for instance, Kohl’s. But with the sound, it seems ironic and hip. I can’t say the same for the print stuff, unfortunately.

—Posted by Todd Wasserman

While brands duke it out to occupy the best of a dwindling supply of A-list retail locations here on terra firma, one family-restaurant chain has soundly out-sited its every competitor. How? By going to sea. For the last decade, the Lake Forest, Calif.-based retro-diner chain Johnny Rockets has been gradually setting up shop on a fleet of cruise ships operated by Royal Caribbean. We’re not talking about licensed burgers on room-service menus, here. These are actual, freestanding restaurants, usually located on one of the upper decks toward the stern. To date, the chain has opened 10 of them. (Go to johnnyrockets.com/locations to see a list of the vessels.) The open-air locations allow the chain to feature both outdoor and indoor seating, and sport the façade and signage akin to ordinary sidewalk locations. Similarities aside, these floating restaurants are a world apart from their land-based brethren. Below, some branding pros and cons of serving burgers at sea:

  Pros

  • A captive audience in the most literal sense imaginable.

  • Sunset views sure beat what locations in Illinois can offer.

  • No worries about a competing chain opening up just across the shuffleboard deck.

  Cons

  • A meal at Johnny’s isn’t included in the cruise ticket; these burgers are "extra-fare."

  • If bad weather hits and the ship starts to roll, nobody’s eating a damn thing.

  • Occasional lifeboat drills can really kill a festive mood.

  Aside from a few limited-time promos, Johnny corporate hasn’t sought much press attention for these locations since the first one opened back in 2000, but maybe that’s because they don’t want to encourage imitators. After all, vacation blogs speak of lines forming outside the units, and when BrandFreak reached Johnny Rockets’ vp of communications to ask if there were plans to open any more oceangoing grills, we were told: "Yes, as many as we can."

—Posted by Robert Klara

Sixty years of sugary, squiggly goodness. That iconic white ribbon of icing atop Hostess Cup Cakes is celebrating a milestone, which made me contemplate the small yet significant decoration for the first time. Would the snacks taste the same without it? Probably not, but folks who ate them pre-squiggle—before 1950, that is—would have to confirm that. Is the squiggle trademarked? Definitely yes. (There’s a scrap going on right now with Little Debbie.) How many loops does it have? Seven. Always seven. Oh, the stuff I learn at a swag lounge! As part of the anniversary, Hostess made its first appearance at the Access Hollywood Stuff You Must Lounge last weekend for the Golden Globes, feeding treats to celebs and gathering their personal cupcake memories. Jennie Garth, shown here, told how she was deprived as a child and had to bum the famous desserts off her friends at school. Bad parents! To make up for lost time, she got a vintage-looking lunchbox full of Hostess. Reporters had to make due with as many samples as they could stuff in their mouths. At least there was milk. Mmmm, tasty.

—Posted by T.L. Stanley

Call it American Idol fever. Cheer, the laundry detergent brand sold by Procter & Gamble, today launched an online talent search to find the "next bright star" to appear on the CBS soap opera As the World Turns (which is wrapping up for good in September). Through March 2, consumers can log on to BrightenBay.com "to see if they have what it takes to be a bright spot in a dingy world." For a shot at the walk-on role, you must upload an acting audition clip. The campaign is part of Cheer’s Brighten Bay soap campaign, which launched in November. P&G is supporting the launch with webisodes set in Brighten Bay, soap-opera trivia and games and activities on its Brighten Bay Facebook and YouTube pages. Says Cheer associate marketing director Alberto Huerta: "Brighten Bay’s Idol sweepstakes is a fun, feel-good contest which allows us to engage with our audience in a meaningful way, and it also allows them to further connect with each other." Thank goodness Simon Cowell is not the judge.

—Posted by Elaine Wong

When it comes to animated kids’ characters these days, you get one of two extremes: the cute and/or fuzzy sort (this is the Elmo and SpongeBob posse), and the kick-ass crew (Spider-Man, et al). Far be it from us to argue with what works, of course, but for kids hankering for heroes with a little more grit and realism, the time has finally come. Making their stateside debut on Playhouse Disney this Monday were Brewster, Koko and Wilson—three All-American friends who just happen to be diesel locomotives.

  Yeah, we know railroad engines have been done before. But Thomas the Tank Engine dates from 1946—and he’s looking the part, what with that gray-rubber face on his boiler and all. By contrast, the three engines in the Chuggington series—created by London-based Ludorum and already a successful franchise in Canada, Japan and most of Western Europe—are thoroughly millennial motors.

  For one thing, there’s diversity in this roundhouse. Koko is billed as "a strong lead female train … who isn’t afraid to put her wheels to the rails." The moral messaging is credible, too. For instance, when Brewster arrogantly fills his hopper cars with more traprock than he can carry, he learns his lesson when his brakes fail. But best of all, the CGI-enhanced animation makes for a surprisingly realistic industrial landscape. All three characters are modeled after actual commercial locomotives (Wilson is an EMD F3-A diesel-electric unit) and follow railroading protocols right down to obeying the semaphore signals and using their sander valves to achieve better rail adhesion on steep ascending grades.

  Try that, Little Mermaid.

—Posted by Robert Klara

There’s lots of finger-pointing going on the day after Martha Coakley thoroughly tanked in her bid for Ted Kennedy’s old Senate seat in Massachusetts. And at least one prominent blogger is putting the blame on the Coakley campaign’s ad agency. The Atlantic‘s Marc Ambinder points out  that GMMB, which also created some of Barack Obama’s ads for his presidential run, was "roundly criticized" for not running enough ads for Coakley after the primaries. Moreover, he cites a source who says Jim Margolis, a senior partner at the firm, was largely uninvolved in Coakley’s campaign. "A source with knowledge of Margolis’s role in the race says that only when it became clear that Coakley was in trouble did Margolis take personal charge of the Coakley account. I’m told that Margolis did not pitch the account and played no role at all in the campaign—until the White House asked him to help at the end—which he did, to their satisfaction," Ambinder writes. Margolis could not be reached for comment this morning. Is this a case of shooting the messenger? GMMB’s Coakley ads don’t look horrible—they’re pretty stereotypical—but perhaps Coakley’s claim in this ad that she’ll be tough on Wall Street fell flat with voters who are frustrated with Obama’s handling of the financial crisis.

—Posted by Todd Wasserman

There are bears and giant bunny creatures in Canada, and they ski and play hockey! Not really. It’s just a bit of whimsy from Shaun White, his longtime corporate sponsor, Target, and his design-savvy brother, Jesse, in the form of a Times Square billboard campaign. See a close-up here. The White brothers, who’ve been flexing their creative muscles with the Shaun White 4 Target clothing line, helped design the nine billboards that give Shaun a good-luck sendoff for the Olympic Games. The ads went up a few days ago and will change to reflect the results on the slopes. The Flying Tomato, already an Olympic gold medalist and one of the most decorated snowboarders in the world, is expected to have another good year (and unless someone thinks of a new nickname, he’s stuck with that endearing but slightly played-out one). He may loom as large over the Vancouver halfpipe as he does in cartoon form over midtown Manhattan. At Target, his latest line of boys’ and young men’s clothing just launched with some Olympics-related pieces. The Games air Feb. 12-28 on NBC.

—Posted by T.L. Stanley

Here’s some good clean fun courtesy of our friends at Coca-Cola and Wieden + Kennedy. This commercial imagines a scene before the Winter Olympics in Vancouver where athletes engage in a little snowball fight. It’s all a misunderstanding, though, because a bunch of snow falls on one of the Canadian athletes, prompting him to drop his Coke. Then, in a surprising move (surprising because Canadians aren’t known for their hot-headedness), his teammate hurls a snowball at the Swedish team, and then France surprisingly gets pulled into the action (surprising because they usually like to sit out conflicts), and then, before you know it, all hell breaks loose in what reminded me of the famously deleted pie-fighting scene from Dr. Strangelove. The spot ends with the original athlete finding a vending machine to get his Coke fix. The creative continues to build on the notion of a magical Coke machine that dispenses happiness, or in this case, restores world order.

—Posted by Todd Wasserman